Visual Studio Developer Tips

Get tips on how to efficiently work with Visual Studio. Explore a variety of topics, including underused IDE tools, keyboard secrets, and application development suggestions.

Introduction

• Welcome to the series
• Clone the GitHub repo to your developer computer
• Open the solution from Team Explorer
• Use Checkout to open exercise files from Git branches
• Use the GitHub Extension

Tips

• Brace matching in C#
• Select vertical sections of code with Box Selection
• Move code with keyboard shortcuts
• Find duplicate code with the code clone analysis tool
• Paste JSON/XML as class
• Colorize output in the build window
• A better way to redock a tool window
• The Open Command Line extension
• Get consistent editor settings with EditorConfig
• Git at a glance: Updates to the Visual Studio status bar
• Surround a block of code with a code snippet
• Understand the document tab features
• Clipping to a border using an opacity mask
• Insert Line with Ctrl Enter
• Use the File Tab channel
• Use the Add New File extension
• Keyboard access for CodeLens
• Use the Clipboard Ring
• Use the GlyphFriend extension
• Activate Open File in Solution Explorer
• Use the enhanced scrollbar
• Drag and drop in Solution Explorer
• Keyboard shortcuts for MVC views and controllers
• Pin data tips in debug window
• The Trailing Whitespace Visualizer extension
• Date rounding and other helpers
• Memorize window layout (Reuse)
• Use DialogResult
• Label a breakpoint
• The Image Optimizer extension
• Use Ctrl+Spacebar to fix case of variable names
• Use the nameof operator
• Discover untested code with code coverage
• Use the Hand tool in XAML designer
• Array Visualizer extension
• Use Ctrl+Tab to cycle through windows
• Understand line stroke patterns
• The Comment Remover extension
• Toolbox tip shortcuts
• Randomize data with LINQ
• Customize context menu
• Get the file path
• Convert lists
• Enum flags
• Reference highlighting
• Evaluate performance with PerfTips
• Null propagation
• Multiple editor views of same file
• Customize the output window
• Colored braces with the Viasfora extension
• Use the C# interactive window
• The Smart Semicolon extension
• Reference Highlighting
• IEnumerable Extension Methods
• Compare LiNQ sequences
• The Clear Recent Project List extension